Cons

Bottom Line

The Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM is an absolutely phenomenal short telephoto lens, ideal for portraiture.
It blurs backgrounds with aplomb and delivers exceedingly sharp results.

Jan. 29, 2017Chris Fernando

As part of the G Master lens series, the Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM ($1,799.99) is designed to meet the resolution needs not only of today's cameras, but of higher resolution models to come in the future. We tested the FE 85mm with a 42MP camera, and when paired with such a high resolution image sensor it puts up incredible sharpness numbers, even at f/1.4, and captures fantastic portraits. It has some stiff competition in the Sony mirrorless system in the form of the Zeiss Batis 85/1.8, which is less expensive and not quite as bright, but it's a fine performer in its own right. Both the G Master 85mm and Batis are Editors' Choice winners.

Design

The FE 85mm is a big lens, measuring in at 4.2 by 3.5 inches (HD) and requiring the use of 77mm front filters. It's also pretty heavy at 1.8 pounds, but balances well on a Alpha 7 II series full-frame mirrorless camera. The Batis is not a tiny lens, but is smaller at 3.6 by 3.2 inches with a 67mm front element, and lighter at 1.1 pounds.

The lens barrel is made of polycarbonate, and internal seals protect it from dust and moisture, matching the weather-sealed design of full-frame Sony mirrorless cameras. There's a physical ring to control aperture—it can be set to A for automatic or camera-based control, or set manually from f/1.4 through f/16 in third-stop increments. If you're a video shooter you can set the Click toggle switch to the Off position and the ring will turn freely for smooth aperture control—a must for adjusting the f-stop during a video.

Other on-lens controls include a Focus Hold button, which pauses autofocus operation, and an AF/MF switch to toggle the focus mode. Both the manual focus ring and aperture ring are covered in knurled rubber.

The 85mm F1.4 focuses to 2.6 feet (0.8-meter), so don't expect to use it for macro subjects; at its best it projects objects at 1:8.3 life-size onto your camera's image sensor. The Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro is a better option for extreme close focus. But the 2.6-foot working distance provided by the 85mm is ample for portraiture.

The FE 85mm is not optically stabilized. That isn't a big deal if you've got a camera with in-body stabilization—all of the Alpha 7 II models and the APS-C Alpha 6500 have this feature. But if you are still using an original Alpha 7 or another model without stabilization built in, the Zeiss Batis may be a better fit. It's not an f/1.4 lens, but it does include optical stabilization.

Image Quality

I tested the FE 85mm with the 42MP Alpha 7R II, which boasts the most resolution of any camera compatible with the lens. It's also the same model with which I tested the 85mm Zeiss Batis and the manual focus Zeiss Loxia 2.4/85.

At f/1.4 the FE 85mm scores 4,040 lines per picture height on a center-weighted Imatest sharpness test, with image quality that is superb through the edges of the frame, which show 3,900 lines. That's better than the 2,200 lines we want to see at a minimum from a high-resolution system like the Alpha 7R II, so you'll have plenty of room to make huge prints or crop images heavily if needed.

And, if you're looking for a reason to spend the extra $500 on the FE 85mm, it's significantly more resolution than the Batis manages at f/1.8 (2,918 lines). But in defense of the Batis, it also records images that are evenly crisp from edge to edge.

At f/2 the FE 85mm climbs to 4,329 lines, and is at its sharpest at f/2.8 (4,737 lines). That's just about as much resolution as you can expect any lens to resolve when paired with the A7R II. Resolution settles in at around 4,400 lines at narrower apertures through f/8—4,379 lines at f/4, 4,400 lines at f/5.6, and 4,429 lines at f/8. There's a dip at f/11 (4,200 lines) and f/16 (3,826 lines).

To compare, the Batis is sharpest at f/11, where it shows about 3,565 lines. The manual focus Loxia, which has a maximum f/2.4 aperture, is never as bright as the FE 85mm or Batis, but it is incredibly sharp in its own right. The compact lens notches 4,185 lines when shot at its maximum aperture and peaks at 4,575 lines at f/5.6—not that far off from what the FE 85mm is capable of resolving.

There's no distortion of which to speak. Corners are dimmer than the center when shooting at wider apertures. At f/1.4 the periphery lags behind the center of the frame by about 1.5 f-stops (-1.5EV), but that deficit is cut to -1.1EV at f/2 and -0.9EV at f/2.8. When the result is -1EV or less we consider it to be a very minor issue in field conditions. It's easy enough to brighten corners in software—Lightroom has a lens profile for the 85mm GM that delivers a one-click correction—but some portrait photographers may appreciate the vignette effect to better separate the subject from the background.

Conclusions

Sony mirrorless system owners looking for a classic portrait lens have a bevy of excellent choices, each of which has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. The Zeiss Loxia 85 is an extremely sharp lens that delivers the mechanical manual focus feel that many photographers yearn for, but it lacks autofocus and image stabilization, and its maximum f/2.4 aperture doesn't create as shallow a depth of field as a brighter lens. Videographers will appreciate its option for clickless aperture control.

The Batis 85mm is the least expensive of the trio, and it supports autofocus, but like all other autofocus lenses for the Sony mirrorless system, the electronic focus doesn't supply the same tactile feedback as a classic mechanical focus ring. It's not quite as sharp as the Loxia or FE 85mm, but still offers plenty of resolution to make big prints, and has a lovely character for portraiture. It also sports optical stabilization, a plus if your camera doesn't have that feature built in.

And then there's the FE 85mm. As a G Master lens, Sony promises that it's designed for cameras well beyond the 42MP chip with which we tested it, but as those don't exist in the marketplace as of yet, we can't verify those claims. We do know that it ekes just about as much detail as you expect out of the Alpha 7R II's sensor, and captures an incredible amount of detail, even when shot at f/1.4.

The FE 85mm is the most expensive of the trio, but f/1.4 lenses are seldom cheap. And this one performs on a similar level as the Zeiss Otus 85/1.4, a no-compromise manual focus SLR lens. When there are three native system lenses as good as the Loxia, Batis, and FE 85mm available, it can be tough to choose between them. If you want the brightest aperture, the most resolution, and use a model with in-body stabilization, the FE 85mm is the way to go, and an Editors' Choice.